Michigan Children's Health Access Program

In February 2015, the Michigan Association of United Ways (MAUW) received a two-year grant from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund (MHEF) to implement the Michigan Children’s Health Access Program (MI-CHAP). The MI-CHAP initiative is intended to build on the successes of the CHAP in Kent County, which demonstrated improvements in health outcomes for children on Medicaid, as well as the Michigan 2-1-1 system (also referred to as “2-1-1”), which provides families with quick and easy access to information about health and human services in their community.

MAUW established the following four goals for the project:

Improve the health of Medicaid-enrolled children in MI-CHAP.

Improve the quality of and access to medical homes in MI-CHAP communities.

Lower the total cost of care by reducing emergency department (ED) visits and inpatient hospital admissions among children on Medicaid.

Innovate efficiencies and scalability by delivering components of the CHAP model statewide through a new virtual strategy.

MAUW is using the MHEF grant to support CHAPs in eight communities across the state. MI-CHAP sites form relationships with primary care providers and work directly with families on Medicaid to help strengthen their connections with these and other healthcare providers. CHAPs use a local multidisciplinary team to provide education, care coordination, community resource referral, transportation and other services to address the social determinants of health and barriers to medical access for children on Medicaid. This may include connecting their clients to a patient-centered medical home if they do not already have a primary care provider. Additionally, some CHAPS offer their own health programs, such as asthma education, Commit to Fit! nutrition initiatives, or FitKids360, which combines health and nutrition education with physical activity to help participants develop healthy lifestyles.